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You all know about VirtualDub — great freeware video editing tool written and maintained by Avery Lee. Most of you already know that with the help of external plugins (most of them written so far by fccHandler it can also open MPEG-2 and WMV files, as well as handle video formats that contain AC-3 audio streams.

I am writing this tip because I am suspecting that very few of you actually know what to do when you open a .wmv file and you only get the message "missing codec" shown in the video preview window.

If you check the file information you will see that the missing codec's FOURCC is VMW3. The solution is very simple — just download and install Microsoft Windows Media Video 9 VCM and you will be able to open the file.

If you have problems playing audio from .wmv files as well, then also download Codec Package for the 6.4 Player, but instead of installing it just extract the files, right click msaud.inf and select Install to get the audio working. Happy transcoding!